Thief
Page 19
“What the fuck was that thing?” Dmitri demands. He grabs at my hands, checks my forehead, pushes my hair back out of my face, and even though I can barely get my eyes to focus, I can make out the worry in his expression. “You said it was some kind of demon?”
“It lays an egg every time it steals someone’s magic,” Roman tells him. “It’s one of the rarest forms of demon. Most cultures call it some variation of ‘magic eater’. I thought it was a myth, or that they went extinct; none have been seen in centuries.”
“I have to… get to…” It’s hard to speak. My mouth hurts—everything hurts. Light pounds behind my eyelids. It’s way too much magic, it feels like it’s going to start seeping out of me.
“She needs the infirmary.” Dmitri’s hand tightens around mine.
Yeah, I do, but not for the reasons he expects. With the bird dead, I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to reverse the magic stealing power, how much longer I’ll have the ability to give the magic back—if I even can. But I have to try, right?
If I fail… I have a feeling all this magic churning inside me is going to kill me.
I try to walk, but my legs wobble dangerously. Roman picks me up bridal-style and insists on carrying me back down the tower. How he’s going to do that with his hands full and us having to get off the roof and crawl through a window, I don’t know, but God knows I’m not in any shape to do it myself. It feels like my limbs are filled with liquid fire, like the heat is consuming my muscles.
“Am I… gonna lay an egg?” I manage to ask. I really do not want to do that. Please don’t make me lay creepy doppelgänger eggs, ew ew ew.
“You’re not going to lay an egg,” Dmitri says gruffly. He pauses. “Is she?”
“She shouldn’t.”
“Thank fuck. Here, let me get her legs.”
He helps Roman carry me as the world swims. I can’t let myself pass out though. I have to hang on, I have to try to give this magic back to Cam and the others. But it hurts so much, and it’s making me so dizzy…
I’m not quite conscious of getting to the infirmary. I pick up a few flashes, but mostly all I’m aware of is the heavy weight inside my chest, feeling like it’s dragging me down. I’m hot all over, and it’s not like having a sunburn or sitting in front of a roaring fire. It’s as if I am the sun, and the blazing heat is coming from inside me, making me shine and burn.
Once we step through the infirmary doors, the world snaps back into focus. The healers look alarmed when they see me, and several rush over to meet us.
“What happened?” a tall man demands.
“There was a demon on the roof. A magic eater,” Roman says quickly. “Elliot has a mirroring power. She was able to retrieve the students’ stolen magic, but it’s all inside her now. Six people’s worth.”
“I can—give it back,” I manage.
“Are you sure?” Dmitri asks, his voice hoarse.
“She has to be drained of the magic.” Another healer looks at me with concern in her face. “If she isn’t, she’ll die. Her body can’t handle so much power inside it; nobody’s can. It’s an overload to the system.”
“No! I want to try,” I insist, drawing the strength up from—from somewhere.
“I’m getting Hardwick.” A younger looking woman nods decisively then runs out.
“This is… unprecedented,” the first healer says. “But—but it’s worth the chance, I suppose.”
Roman, still holding me in his arms, takes me into the room where all the students are lying in beds, doped up on pain-suppressing potions.
Asher shoots to his feet when he sees me. “Elle!”
I give him a weak smile. “Miss me?”
The two of them help get me seated in front of Tom, the first person in the school to have his magic stolen. Already, I can feel the power churning in me, like it wants to go home to the right body but doesn’t know how.
God, this is making me sick. I want to vomit, but I’m scared of what will come up if I do.
“You can do this, Reckless,” Roman promises me, his voice low in my ear. “It’s okay. I’m right here. Asher’s right here. We’ve got you.”
I can hear the rough, ragged edge to his voice, and I know he’s scared, even if he’s trying his damndest to hide it from me.
Outside, I can hear Dmitri demanding that the others not crowd around me, that they get me the best care, that they figure out what’s going on—he sounds snobbier than I’ve ever heard him, and I realize this must be what his parents do. They seemed like the type of rich, pretentious people who’d stride into a room and demand that they receive nothing but the best, and Dmitri’s using that to his advantage now, putting on a spoiled, rich attitude to make sure I’m being looked after.
I think at one point I even hear something like “well, if my father were to hear of this…”
Good God, Dmitri hates his dad. I’m gonna owe him so big for this later.
“What do I do?” I ask Roman in a whisper. I can hear my voice trembling, feel my body shaking, and I know I sound terrified.
Probably because I am.
It seems like there’s a very good chance this will go horribly wrong. Like I won’t survive it.
He takes my hand and gently presses my palm to Tom’s chest. My classmate is breathing steadily, his chest rising up and down, and if he’s still in pain, whatever potions they gave him seem to be nullifying it enough to help him rest.
“Just follow your instincts,” Roman tells me. “It’s worked for you so far. You’ve got good magical impulses. Use them.”
I take a deep breath and press my palm harder into Tom’s chest, feeling the magic rising up inside me. It’s like—like trying to undo a bunch of really tangled up necklaces, the pendants catching, the metal links looped around and around. But I can’t cheat by undoing a clasp and sliding it right through.
I try to grasp the magic that belongs to Tom, to separate it from the others. All the air leaves my lungs in a pained hiss. It feels like I’m holding onto a snake of lava, and it burns me both inside and out as I push and push.
Roman holds onto one of my shoulders and Asher to the other, their grips tight and grounding. Hot tears slide down my face, and a small cry of pain escapes me, but the magic finally starts moving, passing from me back into Tom. I can see his body absorbing it, and it’s like my body is vibrating with it as I push hard. It sinks in, inch by inch.
As I work, I’m dimly aware of others arriving in the large room, of people whispering and moving around me. I think I hear Hardwick’s voice, as well as Tamlin’s and others. I definitely hear Asher and Dmitri—the latter man fills Asher in on what happened out on the roof, and I can hear the strain of worry in both their voices.
Tom doesn’t wake up as I push the magic into him. I’m not surprised, even if I am a little disappointed. I want him to wake up, to feel that his magic is back. But if the healers put him into a magically or medically induced sleep, then I understand. It’s better than him having been lying around here in pain all this time.
There’s no time for me to rest on my laurels, either. The healers quickly check on Tom to make sure his magic is back, but I know it is. I can feel that it’s gone from my body—one less hot twisting lava snake inside of me.
Now it’s time for the others.
The pain’s growing, and I’m losing control of the magic inside of me, and I know I don’t have a lot of time. I have to move on to the next person.
Roman has to physically carry me to the next bed. It takes forever for the magic to flow from me to them—it only took me a few seconds to steal the power from the doppelgängers, but magic was all they were, really. And I suppose it makes sense that putting something back is harder than taking it out.
Just like gluing a vase back together is harder than smashing it.
But it still exhausts me, and the longer I hold the magic inside of me, the harder it becomes to keep it from tearing me apart. It feels like I’m being ripped apart seam by s
I’m not sure I believe him.
Over and over, I repeat the process, shoving magic back inside its original host. I’m breathing harshly in great gulps, my body is drenched in sweat, and I don’t even have to look in the mirror to know my skin’s probably an unnatural shade. Pale or red or sickly green, I don’t know, but the alarmed looks everyone is shooting me speak volumes.
It becomes easier the fewer magical abilities I have in me, I realize. Each time I return the powers to a student, it goes faster, even if it doesn’t hurt any less. In fact, it hurts more as each time drains me further, takes more out of me.
I reach Cam last.
He was the last one to have his magic stolen, and his is the only foreign power left inside me.
Taking a deep breath, I place my palm on his chest like I did to all the others and push with all my might.
Just like the others, Cam doesn’t stir—and damn it, I really wish he would. I wish so badly that he’d just open his eyes, let me see that he’s okay.
Everyone’s watching me. Roman’s hands are at my back to keep me from falling, the healers are muttering to one another behind me, and the room is crowded with onlookers.
But I don’t care. I don’t care who’s gathered here or who’s watching. Right now, I just care about fixing Cam. About helping the man I’m falling in love with.
I bend over and press my lips to his, kissing him softly.
Then I pour the magic back into him.
I can feel it tingling in my hand, in my lips where I’m touching him, the magic reuniting with him. It settles into his skin like it belongs there. And of course it does, in a way that it could never belong to me. It’s Cam’s magic, not mine.
When the glow finally fades, I pull back, and I can see him breathing more slowly, deeply, evenly. The lines on his face have smoothed out.
Thank fuck.
I want to stand up and cheer. I want to take a victory lap. I want to make sure the rest of my guys are okay.
But instead, the world swims around me, and I pass the hell out.
Chapter 27
I end up sleeping for a day and a half, which is extremely alarming to the guys, seeing as how the last time something like this happened to me, I didn’t wake up for three months. But while I wake up feeling scrubbed raw inside of myself, empty and slightly hollow… I do wake up.
Just in time for a few more weeks of classes and then some back-breaking finals. Yay.
Please note the sarcasm.
The rest of the students and professors return after the Thanksgiving holiday, and the six people who had their magic taken are feeling right as rain now that they have their powers back. Cam’s got energy to spare like always, and by the time classes start up again on Monday, he’s bounding around with renewed vigor. Roman’s drowning in grading and finals prep, Dmitri’s cranky, and Asher’s quiet but relaxed.
It all goes back to normal so quickly.
Well, not quite normal for me.
I have to build up my strength—again—because I guess it’s just my school tradition to get my ass kicked every semester by someone who wants to attack us. You’d think the universe would give me a break at some point, but I’m starting to think I should stop expecting that. Maybe I really do have a neon sign over my head, flashing like a beacon for trouble.
The school admins are still trying to figure out who did this and why. Clearly, the man behind this was targeting Griffin Academy specifically, but why he would want to do that—simple hatred for Unpredictables or something else—we don’t know. I’m not expecting a ton of answers, but it would be nice to have some idea, seeing as this has happened before and anti-Unpredictable sentiment seems to be growing in certain segments of the population.
One thing is absolutely clear: that bird didn’t just show up out of nowhere. Someone was controlling it.
Someone strong enough in their magic to control demons from afar.
Hardwick calls me into his office a few days after classes start back up. I enter, not sure what to expect but pretty sure I’m not in too much trouble. As the door closes behind me, a familiar blonde woman stands up from her chair and turns to greet me.
It’s Aurora.
“Miss Sinclair,” she says in her cool, calm voice.
I swallow. Aurora doesn’t seem to dislike me, and I know she doesn’t mean me any harm, but I always feel a little on edge around her. Like I’m about to get busted for something.
“Er, hey, Aurora. Long time no see.”
She gives me a small, tight-lipped smile. “I wanted to thank you in person for what you did. You undoubtedly saved the lives of the students who had their magic taken.”
My brow wrinkles. “I mean, not to toot my own horn, but I saved everyone’s lives, right? Those demon things were going to attack us.”
Aurora and Hardwick exchange a look.
“Not quite,” the Circuit representative says, smoothing a hand over her light blonde hair. “The students who had their magic stolen would most likely have been murdered so the doppelgängers could take their places, spying on the school and causing chaos.”
And probably making Unpredictables look insane in the process.
Holy shit.
“Well, I’m—I’m glad I was able to stop that from happening,” I say, stammering a little.
Aurora nods, looking grave. “You’ve got a bright future ahead of you, I think. Just don’t push yourself too hard. Be careful, Miss Sinclair.”
Yeah. Believe me, lady, I’m trying.
It’s almost surreal to go back to regular classes after that deadly fight on the roof and my struggle to return the stolen magic to its original owners. But I make it through the last few weeks of school in an uneventful blur. In early December, finals rear their ugly heads, but we all manage to pull through. I even get an A in Tamlin’s class, which I can admit I was a little worried about. Not that I think she’s vindictive or anything but… well, you never know.
For once, I pull excellent grades in all my classes. Maybe I’m finally getting the hang of this whole thing. I’d been out of high school for four years by the time I started at Griffin Academy, so the whole taking tests and writing papers thing had basically started to feel like ancient history—something I was unlikely to ever revisit again. Adding magic into the mix only made things harder.
The guys cram intensely during the entire week before exams and then sleep for pretty much two days straight once their finals are finished. I video chat with Maddy about her finals and tell her about the bird—I don’t want to, because I don’t want to worry her, but she has a right to know. I want to be honest with her and not keep her in the dark, although I downplay some of the more terrifying details.
It’s decided that Mads and I will go back to Roman’s massive family home for winter break. Last winter, I went and stayed with her in her dorm at Neptune Academy, but this is way better. It’s an actual home.
Asher can’t stay the whole time with us—his family is close, and they’ll all be gathering together for the holiday—but he wants to be there for at least part of it. Cam and Dmitri immediately declare that they’re coming too.
“Is that okay?” I ask Roman on the last day of finals, a little worried I might’ve extended an invitation that wasn’t mine to give.
“A few more people to do the dishes?” He glances toward the closed door of his classroom before tugging me into his arms and pressing a kiss to my lips. “And you in my home? I can’t think of a single thing wrong with that.”
Going back to Roman’s house proves to be relaxing in a way I didn’t expect. I get to lounge around and goof off like I haven’t done in years. I had to become the adult after Mom died; and even before she passed away, I stepped up to take care of things as she got sicker and sicker.
But here—I’m not the only grownup. Roman’s in charge of the house, but the other guys help out too. It’s not all on my shoulders, and it’s such a relief.
Maddy seems to really like it here too, which makes me glad. She gets along well with the guys. Asher makes jokes about how he’s always wanted to be the older sibling for once, and Cam makes Maddy laugh so hard milk comes out her nose. Dmitri teaches her how to fight and talks very seriously with her about her school’s social politics, and Roman talks to her about her plans post-academy and recommends jobs.
I know I’m probably going to be fine, but if something were to happen to me… I’ve always worried, you know? What if I got jumped on the way home from the bar or got hit by a bus or something, and Maddy was left alone? And these days, my life only seems to be getting more and more dangerous.
But I’m starting to feel like Mads wouldn’t be truly alone—like there are others who care about her and would take care of her if I was gone.
After about a week in the house, I decide it’s probably time to cut the crap and have an official talk with the guys about what we all are together, to each other. Asher will be heading to San Francisco to see his family soon, and I want to do this while they’re all here.
Maddy’s upstairs on the phone with some friends, gossiping about which couples broke up over break and the latest TV shows and stuff, so it’s the perfect opportunity. The guys are all in the kitchen, and I pass through the living room… and pause.
I haven’t really spent a lot of time exploring the house. We were all too busy getting settled in the first week, and besides, I don’t like to pry. But on the mantelpiece sits a small photo in a frame, and my gaze catches on it.
I pick it up. It’s of a young Roman, I think. It must be. He’s a small kid though, about five years old, and he’s standing with an older girl who has dark hair and blue eyes, a brighter blue than Roman’s. The girl looks like she might be ten or so. Standing behind them are two adults, also with dark hair, one with brown eyes and one with blue. The woman has Roman’s face shape, but neither of them have his nose—which makes sense, seeing as I’m ninety percent sure his nose was broken at some point.
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